老澳门开奖结果

鈥淚mmigrant Rights are Civil Rights鈥� read signs in front of the White House last night, where rain and wind couldn't stop a crowd from to express solidarity with the people of Alabama as they fight back against H.B. 56, the draconian racial profiling law that is tearing families apart across the state and reopening the wounds of the state鈥檚 brutal civil rights struggles.

Vigils took place yesterday in D.C. and across the nation to support the launch of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice鈥檚 "One Family, One Alabama" to repeal H.B. 56. Eleven members of Congress also yesterday and held to learn the impact of the law on families, students and businesses in the state. Later, they took part in a rally that to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the site of a 1963 bombing which killed four young African-American girls and spurred the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

H.B. 56 has opened a new chapter in the struggle for civil rights in Birmingham.

Since the 鈥渟how-me-your-papers鈥� law went into effect in September, it has left empty seats in classrooms and crops rotting in fields across Alabama, as people flee the state in fear.

In D.C., a variety of speakers from civil and immigrants鈥� rights organizations stressed the devastating effect that H.B. 56 has had on families, and likened it to the Jim Crow laws that caused upheaval and violence in Birmingham鈥檚 troubled past. They demanded that the White House use the full powers of the administration against the implementation of H.B. 56 by stopping the Secure Communities and 287(g) immigration enforcement programs in Alabama, and ensuring that the Department of Homeland Security does not detain or deport anyone identified under this discriminatory law.

A. Elena Lacayo, immigration field coordinator at the National Council of La Raza, reminded those gathered why H.B. 56 matters across the country 鈥攏ot just in Alabama 鈥� by recalling the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: 鈥淚njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.鈥�

, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), called H.B. 56 blatantly unconstitutional, and a return to the racism and bigotry of the old South.

Johnny Barnes, executive director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of the Nation鈥檚 Capital, described the law as 鈥渦njust,鈥� asked for solidarity with 鈥渙ur brothers and sisters in Alabama鈥� and called on Alabama legislators to ensure that justice prevails by repealing the law.

Finally, facing the White House, the entire crowd, led by Margaret Huang, executive director of the Rights Working Group, closed the vigil by issuing a direct call to President Obama to stop collaborating with Alabama鈥檚 enforcement of H.B. 56.

To learn more about the crisis in Alabama, click here.

The vigil was hosted by Jobs with Justice, 老澳门开奖结果-NCA, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Rights Working Group, National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Law Center, The New York Immigration Coalition, South Asian Americans Leading Together, Asian American Justice Center, National Immigration Forum and the National Asian Pacific American Women鈥檚 Forum.

Learn more about H.B. 56: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .